For that matter it wasn't because of Brodie Retallick's absence or because the Dad's Army wasn't within reach.
Steve Hansen's troops lost because the Boks outplayed them in the first half - simple.
Are the Boks the best team in the world?
Bollocks. They simply waded through their insecurities and the ABs' hype to take advantage of all the variables.
The Ellis Park test is further evidence the Kiwis need better traction on the road.
Regrettably, Brisbane next weekend won't provide Richie McCaw's men another yardstick against the Wallabies.
Ewen McKenzie is undeniably the "Missing Link" in a painful evolution of Australia.
McKenzie has unceremoniously become a disorientated prophet in a cult of mediocrity.
Not only is the Wallaby scrum looking brittle, but the fabric of the team's off-field existence is fraying under the Kurtley Beale fiasco.
Who said what or didn't before a team official caught her flight back home doesn't detract from McKenzie's inability to organise a schoolboy picnic with the talent pool he has.
It's not too late for ARU to appoint Super Rugby-winning Waratahs coach Michael Cheika to bring out the best from players of Beale's ilk, such as Quade Cooper and Will Genia.
While Boks coach Heyneke Meyer has stood toe-to-toe with Shag (Hansen) in the international arena, McKenzie has skirted the ropes in what was always a coach's game on clipboards with World Cup aspirations.
The Boks are only playing at 65 per cent potential but Myer, having flung the ABs monkey off his back with a maiden win in six outings, should be wiser for his troubles.
The test was always theirs to lose. Aimless kicks and flat lineouts contributed to the second-half meltdown.
Singling out players is a futile exercise in championing success or apportioning blame for defeat in what is ultimately a test of a complex web of possibilities to establish a hybrid machine.
Resting Ben Smith is commendable although that should have applied to McCaw, especially against the Pumas when Sam Cane should have been given some game time. (Maybe Cane will be able in Brisbane?)
The ritual of statistical milestones takes over, which also overshadows McCaw's poor decisions to turn down penalty kicks.
Do that in England next year in a losing game and the fans will crucify him.
All that, of course, doesn't hide the fact that Smith remains under utilised and marginalised on the wing for a player who can exploit space on either side of the field.
Talking of wingers, Julian Savea has yet to score a try against the Boks.
Retallick, no doubt, would have made a difference but isn't his absence through injury the ideal simulation for the World Cup?
Sorry Cruden, but if Beauden Barrett ever talked about biding his time on the bench then the dialect he spoke in front of a parochial 60,000-plus Ellis Park suggests his actions are adopting a different lingo.
Barrett had a blinder, a far cry from his missed penalty kicks at an abysmal McLean Park, Napier, a month ago.
Malakai Fekitoa shone but why react like the ABs have discovered oil in their backyard?
If anything, Fekitoa is akin to a high school boy who is merely regurgitating what his English teacher has fed him on literature from supplied stock answers to pass NCEA exams.
It's time to chuck the text book aside to let Fekitoa play his natural game. He has shown he can be a block on the wall, but how tragic is that?
Sacrificing his raw talent for Sonny Bill Williams, should it come down to that, will be nothing short of myopic and McKenzism.
The Bledisloe Cup dead rubber would have been the last decent test to expose players before playing England, but the Wallabies are dithering.
The United States from November 1 won't cut it either although England and, possibly, Wales may be better indicators of progress.
The reality is the Northern Hemisphere oppositions are always a lucky dip although they do have the propensity to surprise in their backyard.
